July 2000

NEWS & ANALYSIS

MicroPix in Tie-up with Taiwanese Group
Signaling the start of a major development effort, Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon (LCOS) developer MicroPix (Dalgety Bay, Scotland) has signed a new agreement with a consortium of Taiwanese partners. The agreement calls for the establishment of a mid-volume manufacturing facility in Scotland by the end of this year and a high-volume facility in Taiwan in 2002.

JVC Unveils D-ILA Line-up
As we reported last month, the Victor Company of Japan (JVC, Kanagawa, Japan) has a new strategic plan to build the D-ILA microdisplay line. This includes new devices and plans to supply displays and engines to OEM partners. At INFOCOMM, the company unveiled several new D-ILA displays that break new ground in microdisplays.

ASIFs Enable 1-chip DLP and LCOS Systems
What is an ASIF, you ask? According to DigiLens (Sunnyvale, CA) CEO Jonathan Waldern, an ASIF is an Application Specific Integrated Filter. The device is based upon holographic technology that can fabricate complex optical properties into thin active elements. These can be combined to filter, focus, correct or redirect light in optical systems. When we caught up with DigiLens at SID, Waldern reported progress on several fronts, including ASIFs designed for use in 1-chip DLP and 1-panel LCOS projection systems.

ColorLink Improves Performance of ColorSwitch
ColorLink (Boulder, CO) has made some improvements to its ColorSwitch technology that could help enable its use in single-panel field-sequential color systems. The ColorSwitch is a solid state alternative to a rotating color wheel. It consists of three active color filters with crossed polarizers on each end of the assembly.

New Test Equipment Options Emerge
One of the short comings in the commercialization of microdisplays has been the availability of high-volume, moderately-priced test equipment. Such equipment is needed to verify the final performance of the displays.

APPLICATIONS

Microportables - Microportables are clearly the hot segment of the industry in terms of unit shipments. Making news are Texas Instruments, Plus Corporation, NEC Technologies, InFocus Systems, Philips Electronics, Sharp Electronics, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. Optoma Technology, Inc., Acer Peripherals, Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, Kodak, 3M Visual Systems, Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Computer Systems Group (CSG),Hitachi America, Ltd., Viewsonic, Sanyo Fisher Company, Sim2 Seleco, Epson America Inc. and Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company.

Ultraportables - In the ultraportable segment (6 to 10 pounds), there was a little action in the LCOS camp, more from DLP and lots from the poly-silicon projector makers. We report on Everest Technology Inc., Polaroid Corporation, Aurora Systems, Primax Electronics, Ltd., Victor Company of Japan, InFocus Systems, Davis AS, Carl Zeiss, Sony Electronics, Kodak, Lightware and ADI Systems.

Portables - Action in the portable segment from 3M Visual Systems Division, JVC Professional Products Company, Barco, Epson America Inc., NEC Technologies, Sanyo Fisher Company, Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company and Sharp Electronics Corporation.

Large Venue - News from Digital Projection, (Kennesaw, GA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Imax Corporation (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), Barco, Sanyo Fisher Company, Christie Digital Systems, Sharp Electronics Corporation, Optoma Technology, Inc. Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company and Sony Electronics.

Headsets & Handsets - OpTech, Planar Systems, MicroDisplay Corporation, Daeyang E&C , Optimize, Inc., DigiLens, InfoEye Technologies, Microvision, Genesis Microchip, Kaiser Electronics are all reported on.

Visualization/Simulation - We cover CAE, Inc., ATI Technologies, SGI, Fakespace Systems, Inc., JVC Professional Products Company, Embraer, Electrohome Limited, Bank of Montreal Capital Corporation, Alternate Realities Corporation/Elumens Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, The Raytheon Company and L-3 Communications,

MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Robust Flat Panel Growth Predicted
TFT LCD News from FPD Expo Taiwan 2000
Global Display Market Expected to Top 9 Trillion Yen in 2004
Upturn in TV Sales
DTV Sales Outpace Early TV/VCR/DBS Sales
Small Data Projectors On the Move
Samsung Leads Notebook PC Market
What to Expect From STBs and DVD

BOTTOM LINE

SpatiaLight Reports Q1'00 Results, Re-listed on NASDAQ
DRL Raises $8.2M, Eyes Projector Market
Three-Five Nets Over $100M
CAE Earnings Up Sharply

MOVERS & SHAKERS
Newsmakers include John Scarcella Jay Dellostretto and Jerome King